Osterbrunnen
The Franconian Switzerland
The traditional customs of the Osterbrunnenschmückens in the Franconian Switzerland attracts each year many tourists, families with children and party into the Franconian Switzerland.
The wells are decorated a couple of day before easter, traditionally at the Ostersamstag of voluntary helpers in the single villages. The blowing out, painting and processing of the eggs begins however like for example in Bieberbach many months before. One of the best known and largest Osterbrunnen is however the decorated village pond in Bieberbach that came with more than 10,000 handmaden wobbling into the Guinnes-book of the records.
The tradition’s origin cannot be determined exactly but the area in which it began can be narrowed down to the central region of the Fränkische Schweiz.
The main reason for decorating the wells
and springs lies primarily in the significance of water as the
life-giving element for the arid plateaux of the Fränkische
Alb (Franconian Alps). Before the advent of the central water supply
system which we take for granted today, various wells and collecting
tanks were constructed to counter the aridity as, for geological
reasons, there were hardly any natural collection points for water in
the Franconian mountains. Generally it was the women who then drew the
drinking water from these sources and hauled it laboriously to their
dwellings. Naturally these sources were kept clean and well-tended and
in some places the inhabitants erected a so-called well house over the
well.
Georgios
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